Recycling Success Story

During busy summer holidays, San Diego’s beaches and bays overflow with local and out-of-town visitors coming to enjoy the beautiful views and perfect weather. With the influx of beach-goers, permanent trash receptacles are overwhelmed by the additional waste, which can lead to debris littering San Diego’s beaches and oceans. Each summer, I Love A Clean San Diego’s Clean Beach Coalition places temporary waste and recycling bins along some of the city’s busiest beaches and bays over holiday weekends to combat this issue.

This year’s Clean Beach Coalition was an incredible success. I Love A Clean San Diego – in partnership with the City of San Diego’s Parks and Recreation Department and FreePB.org – placed a total of 157 temporary trash and recycling bins over the Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekends. These bins provide crucial infrastructure to facilitate responsible disposal for the thousands of residents and tourists who visit San Diego’s coastline over these busy holidays, reducing the litter that endangers local waterways. Thanks to these bins, 174.29 tons of debris was captured from San Diego’s beaches and bay fronts over the 2019 summer holidays.

The Clean Beach Coalition also provided posters and other outreach to encourage proper recycling habits and emphasize the use of reusable items at the beach, such as reusable water bottles and coolers, rather than single-use disposables.

Over the past decade, the Clean Beach Coalition has kept 3.5 million pounds of trash off the beach and out of the ocean. With the support of Think Blue San Diego, PB Shore Club, FreePB, and many more, SDCBC aims to educate beach-goers about the harms of beach and marine litter and how beach visitors can lessen their impact by swapping out single-use, disposable products with reusable alternatives.